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Do Nothing, and Nothing is What We’ll Get

Since I began writing about Door County‘s Brain Drain in the Pulse, I’ve received more feedback than for any other topic I’ve covered in my five years at the paper. The goal in writing it was to start a conversation, much as Patrick Carr and Maria Kefalas did with their book, Hollowing Out the Middle, and I’m thrilled to see that it has. I hope it has begun to open some eyes to the realities many young people on the peninsula face, but more importantly what might help keep them here.

Some have begun to share snippets of their own stories and challenges, which is exactly what we need to hear. Others have sent me ideas.

But whatever one’s analysis of the generation gap is, we have to start with the idea that progress is possible, that there is something we can do about it. I see no evidence that there is one big solution, and I hold out little hope that a major manufacturer is going to suddenly move to the peninsula and bring 200 or 400 jobs to the area.

What we can do is take baby steps, and there are examples of this all over the peninsula. Itasca Automation Systems has employed a small cadre of engineers in a nondescript Egg Harbor location for decades. I’ve heard from a half dozen parents who moved here to work remotely out of Chicago, San Francisco and Philadelphia. The very office I’m writing from in Ephraim is shared with five others under the age of 37, working for a paper founded 14 years ago by a couple of 24 year-olds.

There are possibilities, but if we keep waiting for the solutions of two decades ago – like a single large manufacturer saving us (or a Super Wal Mart) – then yes, we can just throw up our hands and resign ourselves to doing nothing. And nothing is what we’ll get.

Filling in Door County’s Age Gap

Coming Home

Rethinking Education

By the Numbers